a. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to binders, folders and book covers that visibly display flattened, recycled plastic containers. These products may be created by different methods, and one preferred method of producing these products involves creating sheets of plastic with embedded recycled plastic containers. The substrate plastics are clear to opaque on at least one side for displaying the recycled containers therethrough. The recycled plastic containers may be sterilized and prepared prior to the embedding process. They may be sliced. e.g., vertically, and are rendered flat by any available technique, such as partial melt, steam compression or other method. When heated, the heating is such that the bottles are slightly melted to deform and fused so that original characteristics of the bottles remain visible, if somewhat obscurely, such as color, design, labels, and shape. The prepared containers (In this context, “containers” means whole or cut, but still identifiable containers) are the placed in a molten or tacky substrate and are then topcoated with a top layer to create the finished product. The sheets may then be used to create the binder products that display the individual deformed bottles in a recognizable manner.
The word “binder” as used herein, refers to any type of flat covers that are directly or indirectly connected to one another for the purpose of permanently or temporarily holder papers or pages. These include ring binders, clip binders and other type of loose page or sheet-holding binders, notebooks, book binders, folders and folio carriers.
b. Description of Related Art
The following patents are representative of the field pertaining to creating plastic products:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,779 to Yamamoto et al. describes a plastic material with a paint film in coarse-crushed, and a film decomposition agent, e.g. a heterocyclic compound such as imidazolek, a triazine compound such as benoguanamine, a phenylendiamine compound such as N-phenyl-N-isopropyl-p-phenylene diamine, is added to the coarse-crushed material. The mixture is then heated and kneaded to dissolve the paint film and uniformly spread the particles of the paint film in the plastic material. The physical properties and surface quality of the plastic material are substantially the same as those of the original material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,797 to Kim describes a novel matrix containing nephrite jade power as a main component. By using the matrix, a variety of goods in the field of medical goods, utensil goods, agricultural goods, industrial goods, fishery goods, traffic goods, transportation goods, equipment for sports, electronic instruments, precision instruments, or the like can be prepared. The goods made of the matrix can show excellent effects of treating pathological symptoms (headache, numb feeling, indigestion, insomnia, or the like), removing impurities (such as heavy metals), improving the quality of water, promoting the growth of plants by virtue of the inherent properties of nephrite jade.
United States Patent Publication US 2008/0020221 A1 describes systems and methods of generating a recycled output. The recycled output may include a fabric produced by fusing reclaimed plastic bags. The reclaimed plastic bags are fused together using a material manufacturing system. The system is typically configured to heat the plastic bags to a temperature wherein the plastic bags fuse together but do not completely melt. Some embodiments include the addition of different types of plastic or non-plastic materials to the recycled output. Also disclosed are systems and methods of controlling temperature and patterns within the recycled output.
United States Patent Publication US 2008/0145580 A1 discloses a recycled insulation material which includes plastic and/or rubber shredded or chopped up into individual pieces having random or semi-random sizes or semi-random air-pockets in between many of the individual pieces. The shredded or chopped up plastic and/or rubber pieces in combination with the air-pockets are configured to operate as an insulation filler for a variety of different panes, forms, pipes, conduits or any other item that requires insulation.
United States Patent Publication US 2008/0241455 A1 relates to an encapsulated member made with open molds for forming the exterior surface of the encapsulated member, wherein the encapsulation is accomplished with at least an outer skin configuration of a plastic, metal, ceramic or other moldable material for encapsulating pre-forms, reinforcements, sheeted materials, metallic pre-forms and other core materials that can be protected from the outer elements and manufacturing considerations. FIG. 3c shows an encapsulating reinforced member located within an open mold having skins thereon, and being filled with formable material.
Notwithstanding the prior art, the present invention is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby.